Show of hands: Who would have
picked up a quiet novel about an old man named Trond living in a frozen
cabin in the middle of nowhere? Translated from the Norwegian? Anyone?
Do it: Petterson's story about a retired man's chance encounter with a
neighbor who is connected to a key event from his teens, is a
page-turner. The encounter "pulls aside the fifty years with a lightness
that seems almost indecent," and it all comes tumbling and rushing out:
a tragic accident, family secrets, wartime lies, regrets too long
buried, sins too long unforgiven.